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Maya Lin’s Silver River Sculpture, Aria Resort, Las Vegas

Maya Lin’s contribution to public art at the MGM-Mirage’s CityCenter comes on-line tonight as the megaresot Aria officially opens to the public in Las Vegas, Nevada. Ms. Lin’s Silver River is an 87-foot long reclaimed silver sculpture of the entire length of the Colorado River. Ms. Lin recognized that Las Vegas was opening the door to a new era for this resort city as CityCenter was designed from the beginning to qualify for gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED). As an artist and architect, Ms. Lin has demonstrated for several decades now a deep and abiding concern for the environment. Her Silver River will add another chapter to her book on public art expressions which focuses on environmental issues such as water. Ms. Lin stated: “This is not my typical venue, so one of the curiosities will be to see whether people coming here are curious enough to ask what it is, if people ask why is she focusing on the Colorado River. That’s something that is a little bit of interest to me, to see how people react to a work of art that is pointedly focusing on an environmental issue within Las Vegas.” Ms. Lin was also excited by the prospect of showing her work amongst the company of artists that Jim Murren, MGM-Mirage CEO, commissioned to participate in an impressive public art program at CityCenter. “Very rarely do you get to live with a lot of other artists around,” Ms. Lin said about her contribution to the energized Las Vegas art scene. What are your thoughts on Silver River and the effort to create a public art program at CityCenter?

I believe the Silver River is solid and most likely in multiple pieces but just conjecture on my part. There is most likely some other metal mixed in with the silver as it would be too soft and not able to sustain its shape otherwise.